Much of this tour takes you along the city’s edge through the
undeveloped landscape of southern Berlin. The former border
patrol road used by GDR border guards
has been partially preserved here, as are some of the
floodlights that lit up the border strip at night. At
“Dörferblick,” a grassed-over former garbage dump almost
90 meters high, the GDR border took a
sharp turn to the north, towards the panorama view of
Gropiusstadt and a spot that – from 1973 to 1977 – was once
a hole in the Wall. A makeshift crossing into the GDR had been set up for garbage trucks at Kölner
Damm. Trucks belonging to West Berlin’s city cleaning company
drove from here along a fenced-in road to the household garbage
dump Grossziethen. Today a Berlin Wall Trail info board marks
the entrance to the dump, where 4.4 million tons of garbage
were unloaded over four years. As a city with no surrounding
countryside, West Berlin had little space for garbage dumps of
its own, making it dependent on long-term waste disposal
contracts with the GDR during the
years of division. These contracts were renewed after 1990 as
agreements with the federal state of Brandenburg. Starting in
1997, the railway company Neukölln-Mittenwalder-Eisenbahn
transported construction rubble and excavated earth from
construction sites at Potsdamer Platz to Grossziethen. It was
used to fill in and prepare this refuse site for its new use as
a recreation area.

Memorial marker recalls the “peaceful opening of the border”

Image: Senatskanzlei

Near Kölner Damm, you will see a memorial for Eberhard Schulz,
who was 20 years old when he was shot here by GDR border guards in 1966. From Lipschitzallee,
take Ringslebenstrasse to Buckower Damm, where a memorial
marker recalls the “peaceful opening of the border” between
Grossziethen and Berlin-Buckow. Borough representatives from
Neukölln celebrated the tenth anniversary of this event by
installing this memorial on 2 January 2000, a day on which
“representatives from Neukölln and Grossziethen and
witnesses to the opening of the Wall came together to
commemorate this great event in history.” If you look at a
city map, you will see that Buckow and Grossziethen are
actually built up as a single unit, which makes a memorial at
this site all the more logical.

Info Marker for Horst Kullack

Image: gedenktafeln-in-berlin.de

Near Rathenower Strasse, the Wall’s course turns to the south
along Töpchiner Weg. Taking Strasse 9 to return to the border
strip, you will see an info marker for Horst Kullack on the
former border strip and a memorial cross near Wittelsbacher
Strasse, which was put up in West Berlin long before the fall
of the Wall. At the age of 23, Horst Kullack was shot without
warning during an escape attempt on 31 December 1971. Three
weeks later, after several operations, he died of his injuries
in a hospital on 21 January 1972.

Berlin Wall Trail near Großziethen

Image: Senatskanzlei

The Mahlow border crossing was opened in 1977 on Kirchhainer
Damm (B96), which you will cross before turning towards the
Lichtenrade S-Bahn station. Trucks transporting municipal waste
and construction rubble from West Berlin came through here
regularly on their way to the Schöneiche refuse site, along
with trucks bringing building materials to West Berlin.
Passenger traffic related to the garbage dump was also
permitted to cross here. A tunnel was built under the B96
highway for the GDR border guards.
Nearby you will find an info marker for another victim of the
Wall, Herbert Kiebler. On the evening of 26 July 1966, Eduard
Wroblewski was killed in a hail of bullets by GDR border guards, while trying to reach West
Berlin. Thirty-three at the time, he was shot near the railroad
tracks, which were no longer being used. A memorial was
dedicated to him in 2009 at the Mahlower Grenzgraben near
Paplitzer Strasse.

About the route: This section of the Wall
Trail is 16 kilometers long, making it best suited for
cyclists. If you would like to break your tour along the way,
you can shorten the trip by about a third by turning off to the
Lipschitzallee subway station. Unfortunately, you will need to
make a wide detour around the border strip between
Schönefelder Strasse and Kleinziethener Weg at
“Dörferblick,” the former garbage dump, since the path
planned for this section has not yet been completed. West of
Kirchhainer Damm, the trail will take you along Paplitzer
Strasse, Petkusser Strasse, Horstwalder Strasse, and
Hilbertstrasse to the Lichtenrade S-Bahn station (about 1.5
kilometers). Routing the trail across the old Dresdner Bahn
railroad and the S-Bahn tracks where the border strip once lay
has not yet been possible, so cyclists and hikers need to take
Paplitzer Strasse, Petkusser Strasse, and Horstwalder Strasse
to use the underpass to the north on Wolziger Zeile.

Sights along the route

Gropiusstadt

Image: Thomas Duchauffour - Fotolia.com

According to the master plan developed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, the large housing estate Britz-Buckow-Rudow, built from 1963 to 1973, was to consist of small residential areas with lots of green space and circular, five-story houses, along with shopping areas built on the estate itself. More information